Soy bean is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. It is native to southeast Asia and China where it has been raised from as far back as 3000 B.C., which makes it all the more remarkable that Europe, where it was introduced as a curiosity in the late 18th century, showed no interest in it until the 19th.

Fennel is native to the Mediterranean but it has become naturalized in many countries of the temperate zone. It is raised commercially in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania, as well as in the former USSR, China and Japan and Argentina. It is also grown on a small scale in herb gardens. The leaves are used to flavour fish soups and sauces and in salads. In Italy it is preserved in vinegar and salt and eaten as a vegetable (Italian dill). The seeds are used to flavour bread (similar to anise), sprinkled on rolls, in pickling gherkins and vegetables and in vegetable dishes. Italians sprinkle ground fennel on barbecued meat.

Pontefract cakes and other sweets from licorice are made there to this day, but from imported, not home-grown roots. The liquid extract may also be used in making delicate sweet drinks and to disguise the unpleasant taste of some drugs. In Victorian times it was the custom to eat licorice every Friday as a purgative.

In the Middle Ages fennel had all sorts of uses. The fruits were used to flavour sweets, fish sauces and soups. It was recommended for the treatment of cataracts, worms in the cars, and to promote the flow of milk from the breast. The following recipe is for ‘cold brewit’: ‘take mush made from almonds, dry it on a cloth and when dry put it in a vessel; to this add salt, sugar, the white powder of ginger and juice from fennel.

Fennel is generally grown as a biennial. The seeds – double achenes – are sown outdoors in the open in July. If properly tended plants may yield seeds for three to four successive years.

The seeds do not ripen at the same time; a single plant carries them at various stages of development. For this reason they arc harvested in succession by cutting out only the ripe sections of the umbels. These ;Ire then spread out and dried slowly on large sheets of canvas to retain the seeds, which separate readily from the stalks. The temperature must not exceed 35C (95F)